End of Summer Final Report

I, fortunately, had the opportunity to conduct research with Dr. Aditi Paul this summer regarding employee empowerment in a corporate environment and how to implement effective management techniques. I began to research the different leadership styles and how they are typically incorporated to increase productivity levels and staff satisfaction on a wider scale. Dr. Paul and I have an immense interest in organizational communication and how it can be utilized as a strength to ensure organizations are being effective in their standard operating procedures. Dr. Paul and I met early in the summer to discuss exactly what the research process would look like and how it could analyze a significant concept. We first created a timeline for the research. Thankfully, I will have the opportunity to continue working with Dr. Aditi Paul throughout the year as I will be continuing forward with this research topic to serve as my Senior Honors Thesis. The timeline that we constructed listed all of the stages this research project would maintain. Dr. Paul and I identified a basis for what we wanted to achieve and what we were hoping to fully analyze. In efforts to specify, we decided to focus on leadership styles, primarily. I began to conduct a literature review that is meant to be used as a solid foundation for my research. This will allow us to maintain a form a measurement that will be used to properly and thoroughly analyzed the empowerment levels of employees through effective leadership.

I, primarily, searched through numerous scholarly articles regarding leadership styles, discovering that the main techniques fall under the scope of either Transformational Leadership, Transactional Leadership or Laissez-Faire Leadership; as well as a multitude of subcategories and sections that will also be analyzed and described in my research. I also took it upon myself to conduct my own organic analysis by reading literary works that would provide further insight on effective leadership. I have read through the book, Creating Magic, by Lee Cockerell and have discovered the importance of serving on a surface level within organizations. This was identified to fall under the Transformational form of leadership. I have begun to read Creative Confidenceto gain further insight on the subject matter.

Thereafter, Dr. Paul and I ensured that we stabilized our topic by meeting to discuss the quality of our topic and how we would measure it. We also discussed the importance of identifying our “X” and “Y”. By looking at the concepts through a quantitative lens, we are able to understand and orient ourselves regarding the details and potential results of the research. Overall, Dr. Paul has helped me immensely in identifying an effective research process that works with me and my specific schedule. She has assisted me in identifying my goals for my research, but also for what I would like to achieve with my research in terms of identifying possible conferences and platforms to discuss my findings. This program allowed me to conduct research on a larger scale, which is extremely beneficial for me. I am incredibly grateful for the opportunity to garner the critical thinking and research skills here at Pace. As an aspiring law student, it is quintessential that I put into practice this type of hands-on, in-depth project. The structure and techniques that I have learned through this program have provided me with the scholarly insight I need to continue being successful both in conducting this research, but also in furthering my academic career.